Get Me to NUMBER ONE!

Hello, everyone...I have been bogged down by my ACTUAL job this month, but I have hopes I'll get used to it.  Now...onto the knitting.  Here is my most recent article for examiner.com, about a knitted-art exhibit at Northeastern Illinois University:

http://www.examiner.com/article/woman-s-work-a-knitted-art-gallery-opens-at-neiu-today?cid=db_articles

I'm working overnights now, and while I'm horrendously miserable, there are a couple of factors at work there.  In the meantime of getting me un-miserable, I have a plan.  Or two.  Or even a few.  First one is knitting-related.  After Vogue Knitting Live, I...wait.  I didn't tell everyone about VKLive.

Let me get to that.  First, I'm currently number 23 of the 1,569 Chicago Examiners.  For knitting!  Can you believe that?  I can probably name the people ahead of me...celebrity, sports, weather, current events...blah blah blah...and then knitting.  How awesome is that?

But I hate being number 23 (even though it's not only Michael Jordan's number, but also the classiest of the classy...Ryne Sandberg).  I want to be NUMBER ONE.  I need your help.  Please help me out...subscribe to my examiner.com articles by clicking on the link below and hitting "Subscribe":

http://www.examiner.com/knitting-in-chicago/amy-kaspar

You just have to click on the article once it reaches your inbox, get the info you want out of it, and POOF.  I'm that much closer to NUMBER ONE.  Phase Two:  please share this with all of your friends, family, local yarn shops, blah blah blah (that's the phrase of the day), and get them to subscribe as well.  I will never retire on my examiner.com income, but how awesome would it be if I was beating out the weather guy on an expert-driven website?  For KNITTING?

Please help me out.  Subscribe, share, and badger your friends.  Get the word out.  Get me viral.  Whatever you have to do so I beat out the Pop Culture guy.  Thank you.

So check this out.  I wrote my three articles about the event, but now is my time to totally geek out and tell people what I saw there.  First thing is this...I was walking to the line at Starbucks when Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, otherwise known as the Yarn Harlot, walked by me.  I dropped my jaw a bit and subliminally pointed at her.  Then I laughed at myself...most people have that reaction when they see Julia Roberts.  I have that reaction when I see a knitting goddess.  But whatever...I'm fine with it.

The experience was fantastic...my photos are WAY behind but a bunch of the designers and lecturers were absolutely lovely.  My press pass was like the Golden Ticket...people were being shut out of doors, and I just flashed my badge and it was like, "Oh, ma'am.  My apologies.  This way..." So I got to see some behind-the-scenes stuff I wouldn't have seen otherwise.  One example is that I got to worm my way into the very front of Nicky Epstein's fashion show...too cool for words.  That woman, as far as I can tell, just never ever sleeps.  She may doze off for a few minutes, but all it does is temporarily slow down her circular or double-pointed knitting needles.

I also met Vickie Howell, who was exactly what you would expect from a southern-belle-slash-crafty-moefoe.  She was adorable.  And classy.  And she was willing to pose with Teeny Jesus, which makes her that much more awesome.  She suggested I contact her publisher to get a copy of her book, so I can review it.  Really?  Yay!  I will do that...

Just as soon as I accept the fact that this column is going national before my very eyes.  What fun!  Again...I most likely won't make a living at this, but damn if the number of increasing clicks doesn't increase my yarn budget, and subsequently the design whirlpool in my head.

I told Deborah Newton, who designed my favorite sweater in Vogue Knitting's 30th Anniversary Issue, that the only thing keeping me from making it was the fact that it requires three gauge swatches.  She laughed and suggested that if I got the stockinette stitch one down pat, I should be fine.  Done.  Then, of course, I bought yarn for it at the event.  Duh.

So between that, and running into a bunch of my knitting friends (I'm talking to YOU Sue, Karen, Maureen, Lynn, Beth, and all of the LYS owners who were there), it was a fantastic weekend.

Sorry I've rambled so much...coffee is the only thing that currently gets me out of bed, and I've drunk a LOT of it.  Back to the needles!